Numerous species of sharks — a few of that are endangered, whereas others are listed as susceptible — are hauled on shore at daybreak on the Tanjung Luar port on June 9, 2025, in East Lombok, Indonesia. Tanjung Luar is without doubt one of the largest shark markets in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, from the place shark fins are exported to different Asian markets — primarily Hong Kong and China — and their bones are utilized in beauty merchandise additionally bought to China.
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“We had been preventing over who had caught extra fish, after which I noticed my crewmate pushed overboard by the captain,” Akbar Fitrian, 29, an Indonesian crewmember says as he recounts an incident aboard a Chinese language-owned fishing vessel in 2022. “The ship then began to drive away as my crewmate tried to swim in the direction of us. After which I do not know what occurred. The captain by no means reported the incident.”
The seas of Southeast Asia — dwelling to a number of the richest in biodiversity on the earth — have lengthy been in decline. Because the Nineteen Fifties, the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research estimates that 70-95% of fish shares have been depleted and are susceptible to collapse, perpetuated by the rise of industrial-scale fishing, a lot of which is prohibited. Authorized overfishing is one other issue, and each are propped up by weak laws, inadequate monitoring and insatiable demand. Roughly half of the world’s world marine fish catch comes from the seas of Southeast Asia, in response to the U.N., and it comes at a calamitous value.
In the USA, roughly 50% of the imported seafood comes from Asia, with almost $6.3 billion in commerce coming from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India alone, in response to the U.S. Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Behind the illicit seafood commerce is an opaque world standing on the crossroads of intertwining points. There’s the legacy of brutal human rights violations which have enabled sea slavery to grow to be the norm. These concerned within the efforts of organizations just like the worldwide Freedom Fund and Thailand’s Labour Safety Community, which work to finish modern-day slavery within the area, say many staff are murdered at sea, abused and sometimes introduced right into a cycle of debt bondage.
There’s the lawless nature of the seas, which has emboldened traffickers to use determined fishermen and impoverished informal laborers. Then there are the geopolitical components at play: In a race to dominate the seas, China and, to a lesser extent, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia have all constructed outposts and bases on shoals, reefs and atolls. Fishing fleets — of which China has the biggest on the earth — are quick changing into extra militarized in consequence.
All of this has imposed a heavy value on distinctive ecosystems and led to devastating socioeconomic impacts on artisanal and small-scale fishers.
Three nations illustrate the intersectional nature of overfishing:
Thailand
Fishing vessels are seen docked collectively at a touchdown web site in Chumphon, Thailand, on Jan. 22, 2025.
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“Fish had been in abundance earlier than,” says Mimit Hantele, 53, a member of the Urak Lawoi tribe on the island of Koh Lipe in Thailand. “However now, the fishing season is lots shorter, the number of fish is way fewer, and I promote much less. So I take vacationers out on scuba expeditions to earn cash.”
For generations, the Urak Lawoi plied the wealthy waters round them for sustenance. Sea gypsies in a time previous, the villagers developed to rely solely on what they might catch and used easy fishing gear solid from small picket boats.
Then, within the Nineteen Seventies, got here the large Thai and Malaysian fishing boats. Fishermen on Koh Lipe say the boats fish illegally across the island, showing solely at evening to flee detection and in a protected nationwide forest space. The ships use purse seiner nets and demersal trawlers, destroying the coral beneath and, consequently, the habitat for fish. Such overexploitation has led the Indigenous group to show to tourism to make up for misplaced earnings and declining fish shares. “Fishing is in our blood,” Hantele stated, however “our lifestyle has modified. We won’t rely solely on the fish.”
Frozen Spanish mackerel and different species of fish in chilly storage in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, on Jan. 15, 2025.
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Fishermen mend nets in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, on Jan. 15, 2025.
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Small-scale artisanal fishermen shake sardines from nets to collect them en masse after returning to shore with their catch, within the Gulf of Thailand, off the coast of Prachuap, Thailand, on Jan. 20, 2025.
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In response to a 2001 report from the U.N., roughly 80% of fishers in Southeast Asia on the time had been small-scale or artisanal, counting on conventional practices. Nonetheless, declining nearshore fish shares have compelled many artisanal fishers to enterprise farther from shore in quest of commercially beneficial species. Added to which are authorities subsidies for gas and tax breaks for business fishing vessels, which have propped up the seafood business. Speedy development in maritime expertise has made fleets far simpler at discovering wealthy looking grounds whereas avoiding detection by switching off their monitoring techniques.
Oranee Jongkolpath, 30, a veterinarian at Thailand’s Division of Marine and Coastal Sources’ analysis and growth middle within the Rayong province, prepares to scrub a hawksbill turtle in Prasae, Thailand, on Jan. 18, 2025. The turtle was discovered by fishermen in a rubbish patch and was doubtless entangled in ghost nets — fishing nets which are misplaced or discarded by fishermen — that had brought about extreme injury to its two entrance flippers.
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A seafood service provider shows dried seahorses on the market in Chumphon, Thailand, on Jan. 22, 2025. Dozens of nations around the globe are concerned within the dried seahorse commerce, with Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and India being the biggest exporters. Because the commerce of seahorses, that are usually used for conventional medicines, has sharply elevated, the seahorse catch has declined over time. Seahorses are among the many species protected underneath the Conference on Worldwide Commerce in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
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Lax laws on essentially the most damaging varieties of fishing, significantly demersal trawling and cyanide fishing, the seize of juvenile fish that stops the replenishment of shares, the poor oversight of labor legal guidelines and the exploitation of staff determined to earn a residing have all contributed to the devastating knock-on results for communities alongside coastlines and the possibly irreversible environmental penalties.
Members of a crew engaged on a Thai fishing vessel, most of whom are from Myanmar, put together to point out their paperwork to Port In Port Out (PIPO) inspectors in Chumphon, Thailand, on Jan. 22, 2025. PIPO inspection facilities had been arrange in 2018, following an outcry within the worldwide neighborhood over Thailand’s gross human rights abuses in its fishing business.
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A Burmese dock employee types fish after a catch from a Thai vessel was unloaded in Ranong, Thailand, on Jan. 23, 2025.
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In Thailand final yr, artisanal fishermen held protests over the rollback of main fisheries reforms carried out a decade in the past that had helped to rebuild fish shares in Thai waters. Thai companies, which personal a big share of business fishing vessels, pushed the federal government to decontrol the fishing business to extend their earnings. Protestors centered on their considerations that enjoyable the principles would revive unlawful, unreported and unregulated fishing and result in elevated overfishing. The rollbacks, they argued, would scale back transparency and accountability throughout the business and scale back checks on gear and labor. Much less transparency would result in much less data about what’s left within the sea. In flip, sustainability decreases, hurting artisanal fishers who depend upon the ocean for sustenance and livelihoods.
The Philippines
Filipino fishermen unload Yellowfin tuna, Bigeye tuna and blue marlin at a fish port in Basic Santos, the Philippines, on Could 21, 2025.
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The primary time Donald Carmen was harassed by Chinese language boats off the coast of Palawan was in December 2024. The next February, they harassed him and one other fisherman once more, getting shut sufficient to hit their outriggers. “They compelled us to maneuver away and recorded us with cell telephones and cameras. I’ve been fishing on this space since 2016, and again then, everybody was free to fish. I might catch 400-500 kilograms of fish in an evening, about 60 nautical miles offshore. Now, as a result of I do not dare enterprise out as far, I am fortunate if I catch 200-300 kilograms over three days,” Carmen stated as he steered his banca simply weeks later, looking out for Chinese language fishing boats and militia.
A drone shot of the shoreline in Rizal, Palawan, the Philippines, on Could 28, 2025. Many fishermen right here have misplaced greater than half their incomes due to harassment by Chinese language ships, limiting the distances they’ll exit to sea to fish for particular species.
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Vincent Gehisan, 36, enjoys a meal at his dwelling in Quezon, Palawan, the Philippines, on Could 24, 2025. Gehisan was hassled and detained for almost a day at sea by Chinese language Coast Guard and navy ships whereas out on a resupply mission the yr earlier than and now says he is afraid to enterprise removed from Filipino shores to fish.
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Individuals sing karaoke on Could 21, 2025, at an area bar close to the principle fish port complicated in Basic Santos, the Philippines, the place the clientele are primarily fishermen on their days off.
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Unlawful, unreported and unregulated fishing is inextricably linked to the geopolitical wrestle for maritime dominance within the South China Sea. Over the previous 20 years, China has quickly scaled up its fishing militias in a race to say management over an unlimited space whereas making an attempt to satisfy the nation’s insatiable demand for seafood. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan have adopted go well with on a a lot smaller scale.
The South China Sea — or the East Sea, as Vietnam calls it, and the West Philippine Sea, because it’s recognized within the Philippines — is without doubt one of the world’s most strategic waterways. China’s use of its fishing fleet to manage commerce routes and dominate territory to create maritime buffer zones threatens the meals safety and livelihoods of fishers within the area.
Relations of Filipino fishermen place bait on fishing strains in Quezon, Palawan, the Philippines, on Could 24, 2025.
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Small-scale Filipino fishermen unload their catch a fish port in Basic Santos, the Philippines, on Could 22, 2025. The town is called the Philippines’ tuna capital and hub for tuna fishing and merchandise exports.
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Whereas Chinese language aggression has continued for years in areas off Zambales, a province of the Philippines, it has solely just lately affected waters off the coast of Rizal in Palawan, as China is believed to be build up its presence within the Sabina and Bombay shoals, a lot nearer to the Filipino coast — encroaching on the Philippines’ declare to the Kalayaan Island Group — from its authentic areas of declare just like the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal. Amongst a number of the ways utilized by Chinese language fishing militias to discourage fishermen are water cannons, utilizing swarming and encircling methods, military-grade lasers and ramming fishing boats to intimidate and drive them from fishing grounds.
As nations within the area militarize their fishing fleets, the fee will in the end be detrimental to ecological sustainability and geopolitical stability.
Indonesia
Indonesian fishermen unload varied species, together with sharks and wedgefish, that are some of the threatened, in Tegal, Indonesia, on June 13, 2025.
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In Indonesia, poverty, lack of alternatives and desperation have pushed hundreds of Indonesian males into trafficking circles, whereas others are lured by the guarantees of a well-paid job within the development or service industries earlier than being put aboard a fishing vessel unbeknownst to them. Patima Tungpuchayakul, the founding father of Thailand’s Labour Safety Community, says a whole lot of fishermen go lacking from business vessels annually, and lots of extra are brutalized whereas going through appalling circumstances and inhumane, unsanitary circumstances on board, typically on the mercy of the captain or the ship’s homeowners.
Labor rights activists on the Migrant Useful resource Heart in Pemalang, Indonesia, fishermen and a widow of a girl nonetheless preventing for compensation after her husband’s demise say businesses in central Java are adept at recruiting Indonesian crew to work totally on Chinese language fishing vessels, entrapping them in a cycle of debt bondage and, in lots of circumstances, successfully enslaving them at sea. Employees should not supplied compensation for demise or accidents except they or their households had been conscious of what sort of insurance coverage the vessel proprietor had for them. Within the worst circumstances, they face brutal working circumstances and 16- to 22-hour workdays and are sometimes topic to bodily violence.
Fishmongers collect to promote the catch introduced in at daybreak by fishermen on the Tanjung Luar port on June 9, 2025, in East Lombok, Indonesia.
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A drone picture of the biggest business fish port in Indonesia, Muara Angke, the place a whole lot of business fishing vessels are docked, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 15, 2025.
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A fisherman poses for a photograph in Pemalang, Indonesia, on June 13, 2025. Each Tegal and Pemalang are generally known as hubs for recruiting laborers who then work on business fishing vessels for Chinese language, Taiwanese and Korean firms.
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Southeast Asia remains to be a hub for slave labor, primarily in Thailand and Indonesia, the place the seafood commerce contributes a lot of the tuna, shrimp and trash fish used for fishmeal to the availability chains of main retailers and pet meals manufacturers within the U.S. and Europe.
“There’s now much less bodily violence and coercion — however coercion is now extra debt-based,” says Rosia Wongsuban, a program advisor on the Freedom Fund, a nonprofit working to finish modern-day slavery. “Working circumstances are the identical. Due to a labor scarcity, there aren’t sufficient staff to function on vessels, after which the crew must take the additional burden.”
“As a way to work on the fishing vessel, which was Chinese language-owned, I used to be given a mortgage of 4 million Rupiah,” Akbar Fitrian, 29, a fisherman interviewed in Jakarta, explains. “1 million went to paying for fishing gear, after which I needed to work till I paid again the opposite 3 million. Generally, I needed to hold borrowing extra to proceed working to repay the preliminary mortgage. Generally I might solely find yourself with sufficient wage to purchase cigarettes. Generally I went into the crimson.”
Anis Khuprotin, 28, rests her head on the gravesite of her husband, Muhamad Nur, in Tegal, Indonesia, on June 13, 2025. Anis’ husband died on board a business fishing vessel after a chunk of kit got here unfastened and struck him within the head. Employees from the recruiting company the employed her husband informed her he died of a coronary heart assault as an alternative of admitting the reality in an try to keep away from paying insurance coverage charges to the household.
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Indra, 28, who declined to supply his final title out of worry for his security, clothes as a clown and performs music to earn some more money in his neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 14, 2025. Indra, who beforehand labored on a business fishing vessel, recounted harrowing experiences at sea, the place he stated he witnessed abuses of his fellow cremates. Since returning dwelling, he is refused to join one other job on a business fishing vessel, however says he has restricted alternatives owing to the dearth of a faculty diploma. He at the moment works in a warehouse, packing containers, and clothes as a clown to earn additional earnings.
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Fishermen play a card recreation on June 10, 2025, on Maringkik Island, off the caost of East Lombok, Indonesia.
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For the almost 10 million individuals who depend on these fisheries for his or her livelihoods and supply of protein, the way forward for Southeast Asia’s fisheries hangs within the steadiness, on the mercy of shopper demand and political will to implement legal guidelines. The area faces not simply ecological collapse, however deepening poverty, meals insecurity and social instability if unlawful, unreported and unregulated fishing continues unchecked. Overfishing happens as a result of excessive demand and world overconsumption for seafood far exceed the ocean’s skill to replenish itself. Rising markets — particularly in China, the European Union and North America — have reworked fish and fish merchandise right into a extremely worthwhile world commodity. Exports from Southeast Asia alone quantity to over $5 billion value of fish merchandise to the USA annually, illustrating the dimensions of worldwide commerce. This demand fuels industrial-scale fishing operations equivalent to backside trawlers and purse seiners, which sweep by way of huge areas of ocean indiscriminately. Supported by authorities subsidies, these fleets prioritize most yield, even when fish shares are already severely depleted.
However decline shouldn’t be inevitable. With stronger regional cooperation, clear provide chains, company accountability and knowledgeable shopper decisions, Southeast Asia can reclaim stewardship over its waters. The survival of its fisheries — and of the communities that depend upon them — hinges on selections being made now, removed from shore.
Numerous species of sharks — a few of that are endangered whereas others are listed as susceptible — are hauled on shore at daybreak by business fishermen on the Tanjung Luar port on June 10, 2025, in East Lombok, Indonesia.
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This physique of labor, based mostly on a nine-month-long investigation supported by the Fondation Carmignac, is on exhibit on the Bronx Documentary Heart by way of April 26.
Nicole Tung is a photojournalist working primarily within the Center East and Asia. You’ll be able to see extra of her work on her web site, NicoleTung.com, or on Instagram, at @nicoletung.
